Alaskan Pipeline Closure May Fuel Motorists’ Ire

Ugh.  What a terrible pun.  But the story itself is actually worse.

The Bay Area will not face an oil shortage, but gas prices may jump in the weeks to come following a shutdown of Alaska oil supplies, experts said Monday.

London-based BP Amoco PLC, the world’s second-largest oil supplier, is shutting down half of its production on Alaska’s North Slope to repair rusted, leaking pipes. As a result, BP said, output will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day, close to 8 percent of U.S. production.

The disruption should not immediately reduce the supply of gasoline from California refineries, state energy officials said. California gets about one-fifth of its oil from Alaska.

But oil prices already have risen, jumping more than $2 a barrel to almost $77 a barrel, on Monday.

For the record, on September 11, 2001, oil prices were $19 a barrel.